A Case Study of OrgSync’s Budget Management System

The Problem

THE NEED FOR A DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP

Bowling Green State University’s first in-house budget system,
which operated through file-maker, was originally developed
by a staff member to help manage the budget allocation
process and store records from year to year. With the in-house
system, students still had to submit their budget requests via
paper and, on average, 1,800 requests were processed into
the database each year. In addition, during the budget allocation
process, each of the 270 organizations were required to
submit 12 copies of their budget, one for each of the members
of the funding committee, that were on average 15 pages long
per packet. Students also carried the burden of bringing reimbursement
and vendor payments to multiple areas of campus
for approval.

The in-house table structure was both complex and vulnerable
to the skill set of the staff. Unfortunately, the staff member
who created the in-house system eventually left and forced
the university to either scratch the system and start over, go
back four years and start tracking the budgets in excel, or find a
third-party budget management system that would match the
needs of student organizations. BGSU searched for multiple
third-party vendors and was unable to find a solution that met
their needs; thus, the campus entered into a development partnership
with OrgSync and four other campuses.

When asked about the development partnership, Kelly Jo
Larsen stated, “I personally loved the process because it allowed
me to give back a lot of very specific feedback. OrgSync was
more than receptive to any of the feedback and 90% of our feedback
was worked into the final system itself. I felt like it was a real
development relationship not some fancy title.”

The Solution

BUDGET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION

Bowling Green State University initially piloted OrgSync’s
Budget Management System (BMS) with 50 hand picked organizations
that were active and had multiple types of payment,
funding and reimbursement processes. After the pilot groups
put the system through its paces for three months, the university
launched more groups onto OrgSync. BGSU’s major
obstacle during the implementation process was transitioning
from a paper based process to an online system. The pilot
groups were a success and the Budget Management System
was implemented across campus.

A NEW BUDGET PROCESS

With the new OrgSync budgeting process, students first
build and submit their budgets through OrgSync. Next, the
12 funding committee members review the budget requests
by referencing last year’s audited statements, current organization
account balances, budget requests, and other information
all through OrgSync. The organizations then come in
one by one for a hearing in front of the committee who references
all the information through OrgSync. Once the hearing
is over and the committee reaches a decision, the allocation is
entered into OrgSync and goes live in the spring.

FUNDING/REIMBURSEMENT REQUESTS

The second step of the process allows student organizations
to submit funding and reimbursement requests through
OrgSync. Students login to OrgSync, pull up the event they
are requesting funding or reimbursement for, upload their
receipts, and then send it off to be reviewed by the office
of Student Activities. The university
requires multiple reviewers to approve the
funding and the approval workflow is done
automatically through OrgSync. Once
approved, the request moves to accounts
payable and is given to the organization.

The Results

FROM PAPER TO PAPERLESS

OrgSync’s Budget Management System
completely transformed Bowling Green
State University’s budget allocation and
reimbursement processes by taking a
paper based procedure and moving it to an
online system. Students love the ability to
make budget requests, submit reimbursement
forms, and manage balances all from
home at any time. Advisors are also grateful
to approve budget and reimbursement
requests through OrgSync because there
are no longer students camping outside
of their offices needing their signature to
approve a $75 reimbursement form; it is
approved through OrgSync.

TIME SAVINGS

OrgSync’s Budget Management System
has significantly decreased the amount
of graduate staff allocated to the funding
system allowing them to actually use their
accounting skills, instead of copying and
pasting all day. It has also started functioning
as the sub-ledger to the university’s official ledger by tracking student organization
expenses on a granular level.

“It became this sub-culture that if you were the treasurer of one group you were the
treasurer for every group you were involved in because the treasurer position was so
intimidating and complex. We had this problem of self-selecting slots of people who
ended up being tasked with doing all of the treasurer’s responsibilities, whether or not
they wanted to be.

Our students who are not in business organizations now finally feel like they have the
skill set to build a budget. I was talking to the treasurer of the art history association, who
maybe had one class in the college of business. She came in after she built her budget
and said, ‘I finally felt like I knew what I was doing rather than staring at a blank excel
document wondering where to start.’ With OrgSync, you no longer have to be an undergrad
accounting major to be the treasurer.”

UNPARALLELED SUPPORT

“OrgSync’s service and support is always
great, but I’ve also appreciated the fact
that I know if there is a problem with the
BMS I can call in and it will be fixed. The
BMS got a bug in it the day before one
of our weekend retreats and on Friday at
7:00 the budget system would not launch.
I had 100 groups coming in before Monday
with all of this information in OrgSync,
and I couldn’t get it to launch. I called my
Campus Consultant who answered her cell
phone, and the problem was fixed within
ten minutes. I know that the support will
be there and I don’t worry about what
happens if this crashes and I lose my
budget. So there’s the security sense of it.
Not to mention it’s very user friendly. “

IMPROVED USAGE ACROSS CAMPUS

The Budget Management System has even
facilitated more extensive use of the organization
portals. As more students are
visiting OrgSync on a regular basis, they
are getting more activity in their portals,
making them look more visually appealing,
and inviting more members to join. With
the Budget Management System, Bowling
Green State University has seen an uptick
in events, forums, news posts, and more.

Success Story

“It became this sub-culture that if you were the treasurer of one group you were the
treasurer for every group you were involved in because the treasurer position was so
intimidating and complex. We had this problem of self-selecting slots of people who
ended up being tasked with doing all of the treasurer’s responsibilities, whether or not
they wanted to be.

Our students who are not in business organizations now finally feel like they have the
skill set to build a budget. I was talking to the treasurer of the art history association, who
maybe had one class in the college of business. She came in after she built her budget
and said, ‘I finally felt like I knew what I was doing rather than staring at a blank excel
document wondering where to start.’ With OrgSync, you no longer have to be an undergrad accounting major to be the treasurer.”